Linn Linnk

Posted by: Eric Barry on 16 March 2001

Who has info? What did it use for power supply, and could it be powered by a snaps or snaps2? Would it be superior to the phono boards in a 32-5? How much inferior to a Stageline would it be? Would it be worth picking up on the cheap?

--Eric

Posted on: 16 March 2001 by Frank Abela
Eric

Never heard of a Linn Linnk, only a Pink Linnk. The Pink Linnk was a battery-powered power supply for the LP12 made by Pink Triangle. It was meant to be pretty good.

Regards,
Frank.

Posted on: 16 March 2001 by John Channing
When Pink Triangle originally released their battery power supply for the LP12 they wanted to call it the "Pink Linnk" but were unable to do so because Linn had the rights to the name Linnk. Linn had intended to call one of their products the Linn Linnk but as far as I know it was never put into production. I'm not sure what the Linn Linnk was, but it may have been an on board phono stage for the LP12. Thus I believe PT called their power supply the Pinnk Link.
John

[This message was edited by John Channing on FRIDAY 16 March 2001 at 16:14.]

Posted on: 16 March 2001 by John G.
I used one for awhile with a Nait and Karma. If I recall it works with a transformer that plugs into the back of the unit. Do you see the female socket on the back of the unit? Not sure what the specs of the power supply where though. I'm sure the MC boards in a 32 would be a better way to go.
Posted on: 17 March 2001 by Ron The Mon
The Linnk was originally called the
"Linn Moving Coil Pre-amp" and was a
little box that housed Naim phono
boards and was built by Naim(check
the Naim history page). It was
connected via a baby "naps" by a hard-wired NAIC. To answer the questions
quote:
1)Could it be powered by a snaps or snaps2? 2)Would it be superior to the phono boards in a 32-5? 3)How much inferior to a Stageline would it be? 4)Would it be worth picking up on the cheap?

1)You could use any 4-pin PS to power it.
2)The phono boards in it are NA323/1 (S), so if you use a cartridge that sounds best with "K", or are a newer vintage, probably not.
3)don't know
4)Yes. A friend picked one up for $35. which is about what it's worth second hand. Here's what he did; he replaced the stock Linnk phono boards with NA323/3K from his 32 and it was a minor improvement over just using the 32. You have one main benefit; the Hi-cap isn't powering the phono section in the 32, hence you are "board-pulling" and improving other sources.

Ron The Mon

Posted on: 20 March 2001 by Eric Barry
pulling the phono boards from my 32-5 and running the linnk off a snaps.

Does the stageline take a dual-rail or single-rail supply?

--Eric

Posted on: 20 March 2001 by Ron The Mon
Eric,
If you duct-tape your phono boards to the back of your turntable and hard-wire the tone-arm leads and a 4 or 5 pin DIN to it, you'll achieve better results.
An addendum to my above post: the Linnk is mostly only good for looking at and saying "WOW, so that's what people who couldn't afford a Naim pre-amp in 1980 used for an Asak"

Ron The Mon

Posted on: 06 April 2001 by Eric Barry
Have you really kluged a "myfix" this way? Doesn't the box of a Linnk provide some RFI shielding? And could the same benefit be achieved by hard-wiring the tonearm cable to the phono stage?

--Eric

Posted on: 07 April 2001 by Ron The Mon
Eric,
The reason I responded the way I did to your
above post is you wrote the word "SNAPS". If
you were to buy a Linnk second hand for
$25.-$35. and use it or monkey around with it,
it would be a good value. As soon as you start
adding $75. or more for a SNAPS, the VFM
decreases and other avenues become more cost
effective.
And yes, about 12 years ago I put my phono
boards in my LP-12. How do you think Naim got
the idea for the Prefix? cool

Ron The Mon

Posted on: 08 April 2001 by Eric Barry
Maybe if I have the guts I'll try soldering the tonearm cable and cutting up a Snaic to do a "myfix", but I doubt it.

--Eric

Posted on: 08 April 2001 by Chris West
Hi guys,

The Linnk was designed and made by Naim for Linn some 20 years ago. I haven't seen one in quite a while in the States, but before NANA got started in '86, a fair number of Linnk's came across my test bench at Naim, so I'll stoke up the memory cells a bit. The Linnk was quite small, and the circuitry from a pair of 323 "S" boards was re-arranged and squeezed onto a single circuit board along with regulators, power supply capacitor, and rectifier. Yep, it took AC power from a small separate transformer via a coax power plug....no "NAIC" interconnect and no plug in phono boards. It had rca in and out jacks as it was not intended for use with a Naim preamp. In it's day, it did a decent job for those who wanted to put an MC cartridge on their LP12 rig and avoid using a nasty step-up transformer into an MM phono input. However, relative to plug in Naim MC phono boards the Linnk suffered from more crosstalk between channels, more noise, and a very basic power supply. The Stageline and Prefix we have today are in a different league entirely.

Regards,

Chris West
NANA

Posted on: 09 April 2001 by Eric Barry
Thanks for weighing in.

--Eric